Executive Board Meeting Minutes

November 19, 2014  3:00

Wine Road Office

In Attendance:  Renae, Ross, Robin, Sue, Beth, Stacy

 

3:05  Meeting Called to Order  by Renae

• Review prior meeting minutes – approved by Sue / Ross 2nd

 

3:10  Treasurer’s Report – Latest Revised Budget through 2014

• Review Budget Proposal
  • As proposed, the budget shows a loss which will cause us to draw from savings
  • Budget will be reworked before full board meeting
    • Changes discussed include, but not limited to the following:

• Income:  cookbook/calendar/logo glasses taken out of proposed budget
• Expense: no television advertisement
• Scholarship:  Increase amount and offer 3 @ $1500
• Miscellaneous expenses will be increased
• 2 months still need to be factored into overall budget

 

3:30  Events

• Wine & Food Affair
  • Halloween weekend negatively effected attendance
  • Will Call @ WR office proved to be successful – about 250 tickets sold at door
  • Approximately 23 email complaints / wineries reported attendees had vocal complaints regarding absence of cookbook
  • Meeting for participating wineries should be mandatory to know rules/updates on event, etc
    • Discussion on making reimbursements dependent on attendance of meeting
  • Some wineries had noticeable discrepancies in supply return – discussion on notifying those wineries that the office is aware of loss in supplies and in future the wineries will be charged for unaccountable wristbands/glasses
• Winter Wineland
  • Reported ticket sales so far are 500 – email to go out on November 20th
  • 140 wineries participating
  • Same type of advertising planned
• Barrel Tasting
  • No update
• Season Pass
  • Slow sales
• 40th anniversary
  • Gala Event night before Wine Tourism Day with ticket price around $250
  • Focus on 5 founding wineries
  • Auction with proceed to go to a designated charity
  • Need event space – one idea is Coppola, but no outside chef will be permitted

 

4:20 More Events

• video on How to for Barrel Tasting
  • An in house video for members, possible with online link for streaming
• Pre-Event Meeting
  • all meeting to be mandatory for reimbursements
• Reimbursements / Tracking Supplies
  • Take discrepancies out of reimbursements for future events

 

4:30  Marketing & PR

• New York
  • Disappointing trip in regard to SF travel
    • press breakfast was big mess – audio visual did not work / no powerpoint
    • No offers as a big draw
• Wine Tourism Conference
  • Food for thought – Mutineer Magazine founder as keynote speaker to focus on good marketing
• San Diego
  • 13 press signed up
  • 4 winemakers for lunch / 18 for grand tasting
  • App is updated and allows notes to be written next to the wineries
• Seattle
  • February 22nd – goal is to have 5 wineries total
• Wine Road App
  • All updates are complete
• SF Chronicle Ad
  • Turned out great / best ad that has been done on behalf of WR
    • Included full page with the QR code with beautiful landscape picture
• Tasting Tips Video
  • Online and is reported as good
• Grant for Sonoma County Advertising / SoCo Tourism
  • $5000 for each event
• LGBT travel show in LA
  • April 11th
  • Very respected show / challenge is knowing what consumer is looking for and how to draw interest from attendees
  •  

 

4:55 New Addendum

• Announce via Tuesday Newsday for Barrel Tasting
• Secondary locations – to be announced on different day in separate email

 

5:00 New Logo

• Review options online – narrowed down to 3 to be presented to full board

 

5:15 Meeting Adjourned